So Eric Holder ran away from yesterday’s Iran Terror publicity stunt press conference because he was asked about Fast and Furious – Fast and Furious is the Obama program to give guns and ammo to Mexican drug cartels – Then we are told that the Iran government tried to hire Mexican drug cartel personnel to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington. Does anyone smell a whiff of Reagan era Iran-Contra?????

“The idea that they would attempt to go to a Mexican drug cartel to solicit murder-for-hire to kill the Saudi ambassador, nobody could make that up, right?” [Hillary]Clinton told The Associated Press.”

We don’t know what to think about the alleged terror plot or whatsmells an awful lot like Iran-Contra but we certainly want a lot more information. If we find Obama sent a Koran to Ahmadinejad our heads will not explode.

Iran-Contra involved “senior Reagan administration officials and President Reagan secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran… The scandal began as an operation to free American hostages being held by terrorist groups with Iranian ties. It was planned that Israel would ship weapons to Iran, and then the U.S. would resupply Israel and receive the Israeli payment. The Iranian recipients promised to do everything in their power to achieve the release of six U.S. hostages, who were being held by the Lebanese Shia Islamist group Hezbollah, who in turn were connected to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. The plan deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages scheme, in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of the American hostages.”

Money went to anti-Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua back then and we still do not have a full account of what happened. But Israel giving weapons to Iran and money from that transaction used to fund Latin American counter insurgency – “Nobody could make that up, right?”

We don’t know what the Hell is going on but we sure as blazes want to know. The one thing we do know is that Obama is a boob and his boobery is a danger. Recall “no preconditions”.

Obama in 2007 lied extensively and repeatedly after he declared his “no preconditions” stupidity. We won’t review that history today (here and here for those that need a reminder). But we warned at the time that such stupidity would be viewed as weakness by America’s enemies. We warned Obama is a danger.

We need answers about Fast and Furious in a most fast and most furious way. There is a huge coverup going on and we need answers real fast.

Sharyl Attkisson of CBS (CBS? What a pleasant surprise) has been intimidated by Obama thugs to get her to stop digging and stop reporting. But Sharyl Attkisson is on the job:

“In Fast and Furious, the ATF allegedly allowed thousands of assault rifles and other weapons into the hands of suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels. The idea was to see where the weapons ended up, and take down a cartel. But the guns have been found at many crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S., including the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.

A source familiar with the Oversight Committee’s plans tells CBS News the subpoena request was prompted by the Justice Department dragging its feet in voluntarily turning over information to investigators, and new documents obtained by CBS News last week which seem to contradict Holder’s account of when he learned of the operation.

More questions were raised by the documents reported on last week, which indicate senior officials at the Justice Department knew at least something of Fast and Furious, and memos were sent directly to the Attorney General as long as ten months before he told Congress he first heard of the case.”

No, the boob in charge is the one that was angry and disagreed with Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden – the boob in charge is the one that wanted to have “no preconditions” when it came to Iran. Such weakness invites attack.

The boob is in charge and we are in danger. Iran and the Mexican crime cartels are safe.

When they say Gun Runner, I think guns. Guns like in the cowboy movies, but when seeing this video above, they mean the kinda guns that mobsters and folks use in wars. These are the Big Guns, not one with a cork on the end.

“Former Indiana Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan is just one of dozens of people who say they didn’t sign petitions for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton to appear on the state’s 2008 primary ballot and yet their names were approved by the county registration office.”

Fuck.
Okay, tinfoil hat on, but that WH insider guy said earlier this week that there was a movement to take Obama down from inside the Dem party, and that you would start seeing definite and unmistakable signs of it very soon.

shenanigans pointed out in the earlier thread that Indiana was where, on primary night, all those returns were mysteriously delayed. Remember? It was so obvious that even the MSM was commenting on it.

Indiana is right across the border from Chicago.

Wonkette (not Hill supporters) Liveblog from election night as they kept delaying until they could scrape up enough “absentee” and “late” ballots for Obama in Lake County:

12:32 AM — Still 19,000 votes between Barack and Hillary, in Indiana, with 92% reporting, and 1.15 million votes counted.
12:33 AM — John King is now playing World of Warcraft on that creepy Indiana map
12:35 AM — Now it’s down to 16,000 votes between them?
12:36 AM — So Barack can still win, but good god it would be close. Hillary may hang onto this thing, her “tiebreaker,” which ends her campaign.
12:44 AM — Ha, so Larry King really is John King’s great grandfather.
12:45 AM — And we wait.
12:54 AM — Now Anderson Cooper is crank-calling the mayor of Gary, Indiana, or something.
12:54 AM — They are counting absentee votes, because you want to do that as late as possible, long after the polls close, and then “brought the equipment to the airport.”
12:55 AM — Early voting apparently overwhelmed this county.
12:55 AM — Not just early voting, but ELEVEN THOUSAND VOTES. What are they counting them with, Michael Jackson’s homeless zoo animals?
12:59 AM — John King: “I’m going to try one more time, Mr. Mayor.” (Mayor McCheese keeps repeating the number 11,000, like it is a crazy unheard of number, and then he says “disenfranchised” a lot.)
1:03 AM — Still a 16,000 vote gap.
1:04 AM — Wolf Blitzer is still confused as to why the mush-mouth mayor can’t explain why his county won’t count votes. Wolf is getting PISSED because it is like 5 a.m. in Washington.
1:05 AM — “Something corrupt may be happening.” — Mayor Tom McDermott, Hammond, Indiana.
1:07 AM — Mayor Clay: “There is no hanky panky going on here in Lake County.”
1:07 AM — Clay is an Obama supporter, McDermott is a Hillary supporter.
1:07 AM — Ha, there is something weird going on.
1:08 AM — Where is Katherine Harris?

How should liberals feel about Occupy Wall Street? If you follow politics and you think of yourself as a liberal, then you have undoubtedly been grappling with that question in recent weeks. At first blush, it would be difficult not to cheer the protesters who have descended on lower Manhattan—and are massing in other cities across the United States—because they have chosen a deserving target. Wall Street should be protested. Its resistance to needed regulations that would stabilize the U.S. economy is shameful. And, insofar as it has long opposed appropriate levels of government spending and taxation, it has helped to create a society that does a deeply flawed job of providing for its most vulnerable, educating its young, and guaranteeing economic opportunity for all.

But, to draw on the old cliché, the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. Just because liberals are frustrated with Wall Street does not mean that we should automatically find common cause with a group of people who are protesting Wall Street. Indeed, one of the first obligations of liberalism is skepticism—of governments, of arguments, and of movements. And so it is important to look at what Occupy Wall Street actually believes and then to ask two, related questions: Is their rhetoric liberal, or at least a close cousin of liberalism? And is this movement helpful to the achievement of liberal aims?

This task is made especially difficult by the fact that there is no single leader who is speaking for the crowds, no book of demands that has been put forward by the movement. Like all such gatherings, it undoubtedly includes a broad range of views. But the volume of interviews, speeches, and online declarations associated with the protests does make it possible to arrive at some broad generalizations about what Occupy Wall Street stands for. And these, in turn, suggest a few reasons for liberals to be nervous about the movement. [snip]

And it is just not the protesters’ apparent allergy to capitalism and suspicion of normal democratic politics that should raise concerns. It is also their temperament. The protests have made a big deal of the fact that they arrive at their decisions through a deliberative process. But all their talk of “general assemblies” and “communiqués” and “consensus” has an air of group-think about it that is, or should be, troubling to liberals. “We speak as one,” Occupy Wall Street stated in its first communiqué, from September 19. “All of our decisions, from our choices to march on Wall Street to our decision to camp at One Liberty Plaza were decided through a consensus process by the group, for the group.” The air of group-think is only heightened by a technique called the “human microphone” that has become something of a signature for the protesters. When someone speaks, he or she pauses every few words and the crowd repeats what the person has just said in unison. The idea was apparently logistical—to project speeches across a wide area—but the effect when captured on video is genuinely creepy.

These are not just substantive complaints. They also beg the strategic question of whether the protesters will help or hurt the cause of liberalism. After all, even if the protesters are not liberals themselves, isn’t it possible that they could play a constructive role in forcing Americans to pay attention to important issues such as inequality and crony capitalism? Perhaps. But we are hard-pressed to believe that most Americans will look at these protests, with their extreme anti-capitalist rhetoric, and conclude that the fate of the Dodd-Frank legislation—currently the best liberal hope for improving democratically regulated capitalism—is more crucial than they had previously thought.

In the face of the current challenge from Tea Party conservatism, it is more important than ever that liberals make a compelling case for our vision of America. But we will not make this case stronger by allying with a movement that is out of sync with our values. And so, on the question of how liberals should feel about Occupy Wall Street, count us as deeply skeptical.

The fools in the editorial don’t mention Obama either – count us as double deeply skeptical.

Shadowfax, the program under Bush was indeed designed to track (and retrieve) the guns. There is evidence that under Bush, that is exactly what happened – they were tracked, drug traffickers were arrested. When Holder came in, he expanded the program and deliberately began to stop any tracking of where the guns went.

There is NO indication that ATF ever tried in any way to track the guns after Holder came in. In fact, agents were specifically instructed NOT to track them whatsoever. And law enforcement on the Mexican side was deliberately kept entirely in the dark – which makes zero sense if you were trying to catch the druglords.

So if the purpose for it was NOT tracking anything (which is pretty obviously a bogus cover, since they made no attempt to do it), then the question is what was the goal of the operation? Why? What were they trying to achieve? It very obviously was NOT busting drug dealers. This smells a lot like Iran Contra to me – trading arms to nefarious groups for some sort of favor, or to support one faction over another in a drug war for political reasons.

The other theory is that Holder wanted to manufacture “proof” that normal, law-abiding gun dealers in the USA were selling guns into Mexico, so he could use it as an excuse to crack down on 2nd amendment rights here at home.

Or it could be both. Or neither. But one thing is sure, this was not a gun-tracking sting operation gone wrong, since it’s very clear at this point that tracking those guns or making arrests was never the goal.

Admin
for ShadowFax to read to the Occupy Wall Street people on the next educational visit…

—

😉 Admin……..

Have you been to a big protest in the past decade? It’s like trying to heard cats. Maybe the Tea Party protests were with middle and older folks that have never been political before…but in the world I live in, they are more complicated.

There is always a bad element on the edge, trying to lead and define and take it to Ayer’s level of violence and stupidity. There are younger kids that just join it like a big party, free for all, and the rest of the people of all ages that are fighting for similar issues.

I know I wasn’t in lockstep with the blog on the WI protest either…but we all can’t agree with everything, and yes, I have been talking and trying to change as many obots as possible since 2007 to realize their boy is a liar and cheat and I will carry on.

Hm. Okay, the WH is not scared of OWS? But tnr is. OWS is a bunch of trust fund elites with cell phones. Shitting on cars. Looking like they never had a job or a home in the first place. Even the Paid Organizers.

It’s a Rorschac test, that’s for sure. 😉

Seriously, the WH would be trying all the more to co-opt them if scared. If not scared, the WH doesn’t have much to gain from associating with such a silly, scruffy crowd.

But one thing is sure, this was not a gun-tracking sting operation gone wrong, since it’s very clear at this point that tracking those guns or making arrests was never the goal.

——-
Yup, so what could be Holder’s reason?

Talk about tin foil hats, a little thought keeps popping up in my head…was it some demented idea to punish Jan Brewer and the folks in Arizona…trying to make them look like their cops were not doing their job protecting guns sold there from getting over the border?

Shadowfax, and now this crap came out today about the Mexican cartels being in bed with Iran, and helping with assassinations?

I can’t connect all the dots yet, but something is definitely stinks to high heaven here. I want the whole truth to come out. We need a special prosecutor. I well remember Iran Contra, and this smells just like that did in the beginning.

Regarding placement of top stories at foxnews dot com:
Several hours ago, Eric/F&F had the top headline. Now the Iran threat occupies that space.
Eric/F&F is on the second line of top stories … at the far right.
Glad you have all the pertinent stuff documented already, admin!

ShadowFax, please don’t misunderstand. The reference was that now there is more ammunition for you to take to them.

As to the question of protests and the difficulty in organizing them the problems you describe are not of recent vintage at all. Martin Luther King constantly had problems with many groups trying to turn demonstrations to their purposes. In his last work to help sanitation workers, premeditated organized violence broke out and King was distraught.

Ghandi had the same exact problem but on a larger scale. Ghandi had to repudiate his own movement when it turned violent against his wishes and he ordered a cessation of demonstrations and penance for the violence committed.

As you say there is always a “bad element on the edge, trying to lead and define” if not usurp. That is why when you unleash a protest movement you have to be responsible for what you are doing. Those of us who have initiated and organized protests both large and small know that we are responsible for what happens to the demonstrators and to the public at large. That is why we distribute walkie-talkies and appoint clearly identifiable organizers as well as prepare strategies to deal with the police (well beforehand) and to make sure that trouble-makers do not get the upper hand.

The excuses from the OWS people that they somehow want to have a “leaderless” (they really mean the leaders are invisible to the public) movement is bogus to anyone who has organized any political activity which involves a lot of people – particularly demonstrations and protests. Our critique is an informed critique because we know how these things get done and that is why we say something stinks.

New PPP out. Cain is now the frontrunner. Perry is dropping like a stone.

Herman Cain is the new frontrunner to be the Republican nominee, according to a Public Policy Polling poll released Wednesday that found him leading Mitt Romney by eight points.

In the nationwide poll of likely Republican primary voters, Cain got 30 percent of the vote. Mitt Romney came in second with 22 percent, and Newt Gingrich has made a stunning surge into third place, taking 15 percent. Rick Perry is in fourth with 14 percent. No other candidate breaks double digits.

REGULATIONS – FEDERAL REGISTER: 45,696 pages of new regulatory rules were added to the Federal Register
[source: National Archives and Records Administration, Office of the Federal Register, various years]

AVERAGE WEEKS UNEMPLOYED: Unemployed out of work for an average of 40.5 weeks – that’s more than double since Jan 2009 [source: BLS]

REGULATIONS – FEDERAL REGISTER: 45,696 pages of new regulatory rules were added to the Federal Register
[source: National Archives and Records Administration, Office of the Federal Register, various years]

AVERAGE WEEKS UNEMPLOYED: Unemployed out of work for an average of 40.5 weeks – that’s more than double since Jan 2009 [source: BLS]

To answer the latter question first, yes, they have very legitimate gripes.

And if America cannot figure out a way to address these gripes, the country will likely become increasingly “de-stabilized,” as sociologists might say. And in that scenario, the current protests will likely be only the beginning.

“I can’t connect all the dots yet, but something is definitely stinks to high heaven here.”
********
My tin foil theory is that some of the mid-level frat boys in Brennan’s WH National Security office had the “brilliant” idea to change the (stupid Bush era) gun tracking program to a gun supply program. “Wow…Wouldn’t it be cool to destabilize the Los Zetas and Sinaloa Cartels by sending guns to rival gangs”. That would fit the amount of communication between ATF and WH. So send a few thousand Chinese AKs and SKSs to Mexico using local US gun dealers as “cut-outs”. Predictably, the guns turned up at killings of Mexican officials, police and a US Border Patrol agent; therefore the scramble by DOJ and the cover up to protect the Obama WH.

Mrs. Smith, they are really really stretching in that Salon piece to call it a lie. If you watched the entire exchange with Cain, he navigated it pretty well. I disagree with him, but he didn’t outright lie.

OWS is crawling with paid operatives from unions, OFA, Acorn, etc – both in the street and in the “organizing” meetings. Literally crawling with them. You can’t swing a cat without hitting people whose CAREER it is to organize at these OWS events.
[….]
Looking at OWS, there is an avalanche of data points showing involvement on every level of official Dem and professional advocacy group involvement. They are everywhere.

====================

Ah. So those professional organizers are responsible for the smell, mess, sanitation, anti-capitalist talk — and lack of clear demands.

Either that — or maybe they’re only TRYING to get some control, not succeeding? (If we can believe the count, anyway.)

Mrs. Smith, they are really really stretching in that Salon piece to call it a lie. If you watched the entire exchange with Cain, he navigated it pretty well. I disagree with him, but he didn’t outright lie.
___________________

I’m not really concerned… I just saw the blip and wanted to post it.. you know the Romneyites will have their oppo team working hard to discredit Cain anyway they can- NBC ran a piece on Cain tonite saying they don’t believe he isa serious candidate. Saying, he is more focused on the book trail than the campaign trail.

Romney is the media’s favorite sun now that Perry’s campaign has sun-set…so to speak.. 🙂

Shadowfax
October 12th, 2011 at 7:28 pm
Speaking of bumper stickers, even 3 years later, when I see an Obama/Biden bumper sticker I barely have enough control to keep from ramming into that drive”s car…

My middle finger starts to twitch and it takes me a couple of blocks to recover.
_______________________________________________________

Exact same reaction here. I usually stare at their stupid ass with an involuntary look of disgust, too.

The big news here is that two separate news unions, including the newspaper guild, the recognized union for many print and online journalists, and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) are fully behind the radical message of Occupy Wall Street.
The newspaper guild is part of the Communications Workers of America, listed prominently among 16 union supporters of Occupy Wall Street. CWA is an omnibus group made up of several smaller unions such as The Newspaper Guild, which “merged with CWA in 1997, as did the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees.” They joined the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, also part of CWA. CWA, in turn, is also affiliated with the AFL-CIO and the International Federation of Journalists. Look for the union label and you find it on a card in the wallet of many journalists.
The newspaper guild isn’t subtle about its support either. The guild’s website leads with a Paul Krugman pro-protest piece headlined: “Confronting the Malefactors.” That’s just above an AP story on the protests, describing how unions are aiding the movement.
Even more obvious is the lead story for the guild’s publication, “The Guild Reporter.” Editor Andy Zipser combined the Wisconsin union battle with hopes that it would continue and complained that “right-wing governors and legislators in a score of states pushed an asylum’s menu of loony legislation.”
The journalists’ publication went on to criticize “Republicans,” “the Tea Party,” “the Kochs,” Republican Wisconsin “Gov. Scott Walker,” the “radical right,” the “GOP” and “its rabid right wing” at least a dozen times by name in about 700 words.
I love objective journalism.
Naturally, that conflicts with the organization’s own constitution. Article I of the Newspaper Guild’s constitution describes its purpose to include promoting “industrial unionism” while also able to:
• “Guarantee, as far as it is able, equal employment and advancement opportunity in the newspaper industry and constant honesty in news, editorials, advertising, and business practices.
• “Raise the standards of journalism and ethics of the industry.”
Honesty and ethics always sound better in theory, I’m guessing.
The other union is the Writers Guild of America, East, (WGAE). It describes itself as a “labor union of thousands of professionals who are the primary creators of what is seen or heard on television and film in the U.S.,” and that includes “everything from big budget movies to independent films, late night comedy/variety shows to daytime serials, broadcast and radio news, web series, documentaries, and animation.”
That guild led its own website with a picture of the guild banner flying at an Occupy Wall Street protest. According to the site, “Writers Guild members joined thousands of other union members and students in support of Occupy Wall Street at a rally in Foley Square on October 5.” Inside, the guild featured more pictures, including one guild member wearing a Writers Guild of America, East T-shirt and holding a sign saying: “No Bulls, No Bears, Only Pigs.”
Both organizations have a large volume of information for the profession on their websites, from job postings to how to join to information on strikes. There’s no code of ethics included on either site.
Fortunately, the Society of Professional Journalists has an ethical code. It’s only voluntary, but still useful. It contains a few guidelines that both unions might find useful. Journalists should:
• “Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.”
• “Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.”
• “Disclose unavoidable conflicts.”
• “Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence news coverage.”
Get back to me when journalists have done any of these things regarding Occupy Wall Street.

Oh my…will this president, under stagnant polling data, ever increasing legal troubles against his Department of Justice, and growing concerns within his own party over his inability to accomplish even the simplest measures of leadership standards, actually utilize a failed terror plot that intelligence agencies have known about for weeks prior, to justify the ultimate wag the dog moment in bombing Iran?

Unconfirmed link just posted at Ace of Spades.

Don’t forget – we are already engaged in three war actions at present in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya – the last of which the administration until just recently dishonestly maintained had no American troops on the ground.

“In an interview yesterday, Mrs Clinton said that she believes President Barack Obama will be re-elected and that she expects to leave her current job after a transition period in his second term.”

I don’t think she believes he will be reelected for one mintue…she is a politically saavy woman. She is just biding her time and watching and waiting for the final implosion like all of us and not yet speculating about anything else…

Personally, I think that if she was really just waiting to retire and play the role of grandma her 31 year old Chelsea would have choosen to be pregnant by now. I also read recent articles about Chelsea coming out more in the limelight and being more active in public service..Hmmm…that doesn’t sound like someone who wants to start having children and settling down to a domestic life..Is this all happening for a reason perhaps?

a new Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), to launch a national effort to help homeowners refinance their mortgages. The original HOLC, launched in 1933, bought mortgages from failed banks and modified the terms so families could make affordable payments while keeping their homes. The original HOLC returned a profit to the Treasury and saved one million homes. We can save roughly three times that many today. We should also put in place a temporary moratorium on foreclosures and freeze rate hikes in adjustable-rate mortgages. We’ve got to stem the tide of failing mortgages and give the markets time to recover.

turndownobama
October 12th, 2011 at 9:37 pm
freeze rate hikes in adjustable-rate mortgages.
________________________________________________
There hasn’t been a rate hike on an adjustable rate mortgage in many, many years because they are tied to current lending rates which have been going down, down, down.

The Obot protesters haven’t had a Leader in three years…why would they think they have one now when the Kooks, Move-on, unions or anyone else picks up a megaphone?

What stage in the process of grief, goes from denial to ANGER?

We have been working through all this bs together since 2007…so maybe these folks have a ways to go before they realize they were duped from the beginning?

We knew things would get ugly, the closer they came to the truth about Obama and his thug’s plan, maybe this is the beginning of their detox phase…

Don’t get me wrong, some of them will be lame for the rest of their lives, but hopefully the majority will see the forest through the trees, otherwise there is no hope for the future of the Democrat Party and Hillary will never lead us back home…

Looks to me like Hillary is leading from behind- while Hussein if off dribbling for donations- At least (our Hillary) is paying attention to a potential donnybrook w/Iran-
_______

Alleged Iran plot “dangerous escalation”: Clinton

(Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Iran’s alleged ties to a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington marked a “dangerous escalation” of Tehran’s sponsorship of terrorism.

“This plot, very fortunately disrupted by the excellent work of our law enforcement and intelligence professionals, was a flagrant violation of international and U.S. law and a dangerous escalation of the Iranian government’s longstanding use of political violence and sponsorship of terrorism,” Clinton told a think tank audience in Washington.

Clinton said Iran’s alleged part in the conspiracy, which was revealed by U.S. law enforcement officials on Tuesday, showed Tehran was willing to flout established international conventions on protecting diplomats that it itself had signed.

“This kind of reckless act undermines international norms and the international system. Iran must be held accountable for its actions,” Clinton said, noting that the United States had already imposed targeted sanctions on “individuals within the Iranian government who are associated with this plot and Iran’s support for terrorism.”

“We will work closely with our international partners to increase Iran’s isolation and the pressure on its government and we call upon other nations to join us in condemning this threat to international peace and security,” she said.

Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday Iran would “pay the price” for the alleged plot, while Tehran called the accusation a fabrication designed to sow discord in the region already on edge over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
_____

U.S. Challenged to Explain Accusations of Iran Plot in the Face of Skepticism

Establish a Wall Street speculation fee on credit default swaps, derivatives, stock options and futures. Both the economic crisis and the deficit crisis are a direct result of the greed and recklessness on Wall Street. Establishing a speculation fee would reduce gambling on Wall Street, encourage the financial sector to invest in the productive economy, and significantly reduce the deficit without harming average Americans. There are a number of precedents for this. The U.S had a similar Wall Street speculation fee from 1914 to 1966. The Revenue Act of 1914 levied a 0.2 percent tax on all sales or transfers of stock. In 1932, Congress more than doubled that tax to help finance the government during the Great Depression. And today, England has a financial transaction tax of 0.25 percent, a penny on every $4 invested.
— Bernie Sanders

(CNSNews.com) –
Art Brennan and five others were arrested at the Hart Senate building on Oct. 11, 2011 as they protested against war, as part of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.

Art Brennan, a retired New Hampshire judge and organizer of the D.C. “October 2011” protest, said Tuesday he voted for Barack Obama in 2008 but now holds the president responsible for sparking protests on Wall Street and at other venues around the country.

“I blame Obama,” said Brennan when asked by CNSNews.com what role the Obama administration played in the problems facing the nation. “I worked for Obama during the election and I was here for the inauguration.”

“I was very pleased” about the election outcome, said Brennan. “But within two weeks I could see that we might as well have another Bush in there.”

WASHINGTON — In the clearest sign yet that President Barack Obama is gearing up for a run against Mitt Romney in 2012, David Axelrod on Wednesday laid into the GOP presidential hopeful for flip-flopping on key issues and raised questions about whether people can trust him.

During a conference call held for the sole purpose of bashing Romney, Axelrod, Obama’s top campaign strategist, took aim at the former Massachusetts governor for saying during Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate that he opposes the payroll tax cut extension being pushed by Obama as part of his jobs package.

Not only would the tax cut extension translate to $1,500 for 160 million families at a time of economic uncertainty, he said, but one of the “most appalling things” about Romney’s stance is that it recently changed.

“Just a few months ago, Gov. Romney was equally vehement in support of extending this payroll tax cut,” Axelrod told reporters on the call. “He switched positions on something that is so fundamental to strengthening our economy in a very difficult time.”

But Axelrod didn’t stop there: He unleashed on Romney’s economic plan, a proposal he said caters to the wealthy while providing average families with a measly $50 tax cut. He also accused Romney of pulling “a 180” on his position on China currency, and he wondered aloud how Romney can routinely knock health care reform when he has previously touted the Massachusetts health care system as a model for Obama’s program.

Romney’s flip-flopping “is a pattern time and time again,” Axelrod said. “It’s consistent with a guy who ran for the governor of Massachusetts … as a pro-choice moderate who supported civil unions, and who supported environmental protections … to the guy you see today, who is hard after the Tea Party vote.”

The bottom line is that an economic plan built on a $50 tax cut “doesn’t inspire trust, that inspires questions,” he said. “And I think those questions are going to grow over time.”

Despite the all-out assault on Romney, and the unusual move of holding a call with reporters specifically to criticize one GOP presidential candidate, Axelrod dismissed the idea that Obama views Romney as his likely challenger.

“We’re not picking the nominee,” he said, “but [Romney] deserves to be scrutinized because he is stunningly inconsistent.”

Pressed further on why Axelrod was going so hard after Romney versus Rick Perry or Herman Cain in the 12:30 p.m. call, he quipped, “That’s the two o’clock call.”

Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said Axelrod’s attacks are just a distraction from the dismal economic situations playing out on Obama’s watch.

“What we’re getting from this administration in response to the tanking economy are deflections and diversions from what really matters, which is President Obama’s failure to create jobs,” Williams told The Huffington Post in a statement. “President Obama has turned America into an economic disaster zone. The only question is whether we can make it to the election of 2012 before Obama takes us all the way back to 1929.”

Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney’s traveling press secretary, took to Twitter to push back on Axelrod’s criticisms.

“Mitt Romney believes this election is about saving America but @davidaxelrod thinks it’s about saving Barack Obama’s job,” he tweeted.

Axelrod is living in a bubble if he thinks Americans are blind to the mess Obama has made of this country since he took office. Obama is facing so many scandals to extricate himself from it’s a wonder Axelrod had time to think about Romney.
………..

” [Axelrod] he said, “but [Romney] deserves to be scrutinized because he is stunningly inconsistent.”
……….

Axelrod, get yourself an abacus if you’ve run out of fingers and toes for remembering how many times Obama has been stunningly inconsistent. No one I know has forgotten.

I read the article at NO Quarter and RRR’s SPECULATION about Hillary being involved in Fast and Furious.

Can’t you just hear Jarret, Axlerod, Holder, Obama plotting…Now if we can leak even the suggestion that Hillary is involved, the Clinton haters will jump on this like it is red meat. Clinton Derangement Syndrome will run rampant again and we can just sit back and let Hillary take the fall. That ought to eliminate HER from any chance of a come back. Great idea…kill two birds with one stone.

As always, if there is even a whiff of a scandal, true or not, some people are ready to believe the worst about the Clintons without ever bothering with something insignifican…like the FACTS.

Bringing this up from the park thread, because it bothers me. Lola shared a facebook link:

After General Assembly on Thursday, we’ll have a full-camp cleanup session. Sanitation can coordinate, and anyone who is available will help with the massive community effort!
Then, Friday morning, we’ll awake and position ourselves with our brooms and mops in a human chain around the park, linked at the arms. If NYPD attempts to enter, we’ll peacefully/non-violently stand our ground and those who are willing will get arrested.”

So if your intent is really to be non-violent and help clean up, why are you being instructed to have your brooms and mops with you for this human chain? Why not put them down in a pile in the park before you form your chain?

Who is organizing this? Whose announcement was that, which the kids are dutifully spreading via social media? Where did it originate? Who is subtly nudging them into violent confrontation with police by telling them to stand non-violently (*wink wink*) with fucking poles in their hands?

Where did that instruction originate? Because some asshole with an agenda out there wants this shit to escalate, and does not care if these kids get hurt.

Whoever set this up, from what I can see, is actively discouraging them from forming any kind of semi-unified message, or having actual leaders from among themselves. Why? The teaparties were successful because they did organize themselves from within, choose local leaders even if informally, and try to set out a plan for achieving leverage over our govt using the system we have. Yes, there was a lot of emotion, but the emotion wasn’t the point of it all.

Keeping it all vague and anonymous does not benefit the protestors in achieving any goals, and they are being outright discouraged from having any measurable ones. Under the guise of “leaderless consensus” they are being held to no targets other than symbolic ones. Why? It doesn’t benefit them, or change anything.

It does benefit those who might have an interest in keeping a boiling pot going without any real threat to the status quo.

They have known about this plot since June- When you start asking yourself questions like WHY NOW? The answer becomes clear…. taking Obama off the front page for doing nothing about job creation for Americans concerned only about himself and his own job. Obama needs to be sent packing!

Clinton tells TODAY she will not run; Biden has done ‘an amazingly good job’

By Scott Stump
10/13/2011

Hillary Clinton shot down speculation she could join the Obama 2012 ticket as vice president in 2012 in an exclusive interview with TODAY. Switching positions with Joe Biden, per rumors swirling around Washington, is not “in the realm of possibility,’’ the secretary of state told Savannah Guthrie.

“I do not think it’s even in the realm of possibility, and in large measure because I think Vice President Biden has done an amazingly good job,’’ Clinton told Guthrie in an interview that aired partially on Thursday. “He has taken on the burden of, you know, selling the economic plan, of traveling the country, of answering people’s questions.’’

The possibility of an Obama/Clinton ticket in 2012 has not even been raised to her, she said.

“It’s maybe a subject for speculation on Google, but it’s not a serious issue in the administration,’’ Clinton said.

Guthrie discussed a range of issues with Clinton, from the alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington to domestic affairs to whether she will run for president in 2016. The exclusive TODAY interview will air in full on Monday.

Clinton believes that the alleged plot by the Iranian government to kill a Saudi official, which she called a “dangerous escalation,” came from the highest levels.

“We think that this was conceived and directed from Tehran,’’ Clinton said. “We know that it goes to a certain level within the Quds Force, which is part of the Revolutionary Guard, which is the military wing of the Iranian government. And we know that this was in the making, and there was a lot of communication between the defendants and others in Tehran.

“So we’re going to let the evidence unfold. But the important point to make is that this just is in violation of international norms. It is a state-sponsored act of terror, and the world needs to speak out strongly against it.’’

Clinton would not speculate on whether the act was ordered by the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or what the motivation may have been behind the alleged plot.

“It’s a little hard to tell what was really going on, why this was given a seal of approval, why there was a go-head from Tehran,’’ she said. “It’s difficult to know who’s actually making the decisions. Was this for political purposes? Was this just a crazy idea that got out of hand?’’

“What we’re getting from this administration in response to the tanking economy are deflections and diversions from what really matters, which is President Obama’s failure to create jobs,” Williams told The Huffington Post in a statement. “President Obama has turned America into an economic disaster zone. The only question is whether we can make it to the election of 2012 before Obama takes us all the way back to 1929

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Mrs.Smith: I lived in through the great depression of 29 and that was a cake walk compared to this disaster we have in our lives since the “Messiah” decided to push Hillary into the trap that the DNC.
arranged. THe race card was his calling card to screw the great American Democracy.

Soros and the protesters deny any connection. But Reuters did find indirect financial links between Soros and Adbusters, an anti-capitalist group in Canada which started the protests with an inventive marketing campaign aimed at sparking an Arab Spring type uprising against Wall Street. Moreover, Soros and the protesters share some ideological ground.

Adbusters, whose magazine has a circulation of 120,000 and which is known for its spoofs of popular advertisements, came up with the Occupy Wall Street idea after Arab Spring protests toppled governments in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, said Kalle Lasn, 69, Adbusters co-founder.

“It came out of these brainstorming sessions we have at Adbusters,” Lasn told Reuters, adding they began promoting it online on July 13. “We were inspired by what happened in Tunisia and Egypt and we had this feeling that America was ripe for a Tahrir moment.”

“We felt there was a real rage building up in America, and we thought that we would like to create a spark which would give expression for this rage.”
**********************************************************
The protests began in earnest on September 17, triggered by an Adbusters campaign featuring a provocative poster showing a ballerina dancing atop the famous bronze bull in New York’s financial district as a crowd of protesters wearing gas masks approach behind her.
Dressed in anarchist black, the battle-ready mob is shrouded in a fog suggestive of tear gas or fires burning. Some are wearing gas masks, others wielding sticks. The poster’s message seems to be a heady combination of sexuality, violence, excitement and adventure.

“Mrs.Smith: I lived in through the great depression of 29 and that was a cake walk compared to this disaster we have in our lives since the “Messiah” decided to push Hillary into the trap that the DNC.
arranged. THe race card was his calling card to screw the great American Democracy.”

The Great Depression was no cakewalk! Long lines to soup kitchens, people selling their furniture on the street, evictions, gang wars, race riots, suicides, crime was rampant, talk of revolution everywhere– even my own father, a peaceful, loving man told my mother he would carry a gun or a club if it came to that. There were massive migrations of poor displaced families due not only to wasted farm land but also to bank foreclosures. Bankers were so despised that Bonnie and Clyde were considered heroes. Huge numbers of people were out of work — there were CCC camps and WPA projects to create jobs — and those who had jobs were earning just enough to enjoy bare subsistence. I remember kids who had no shoes or shoes lined with newspaper because the soles were worn through. There were shanty-towns set up by homeless squatters – usually without running water and toilets – also called Hoovervilles. I could go on and on with this description but my point is that if you lived through all that and you want to see it through rose-colored nostalgia, it might suit your needs, but it it isn’t history. No, let’s not minimize the Great Depression. It was a hard, hard time.

But when the anti-establishment movement called Occupy Wall Street opened the floor to comments during a recent meeting, Reena Walker looked at the crowd in a Manhattan park and bellowed disapproval over the visits that day of Sharpton, West and hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.

“Sharpton and all these guys — are you kidding me?” said Walker, who accused them of using Occupy Wall Street to bolster their profiles while perpetuating things the movement eschews, such as party politics, consumerism and sexism. “We don’t want to be used and co-opted. This is not a game.”

As Occupy Wall Street expands to dozens of cities and figures into matters including presidential news conferences and Republican debates, interest from stars and activists eager to glom onto its fame is one of its growing pains. [snip]

The last to speak was Walker, from a New York group called Progressive Black Thinkers. She said Sharpton, West and Simmons didn’t speak for most of Occupy Wall Street’s participants, and she was angry that the men hadn’t spoken up to support the movement early in the game, when Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon were singing its praises. Waiting until Occupy Wall Street was a national phenomenon suggested that they were using it only for publicity, Walker said.

“Once the cops come in here and start beating heads, where are they going to be?” she after the meeting.

Ashley Love nodded in agreement: “If they’re going to come down now, bring us some money.”

Simmons told Keith Olbermann on Current TV’s “Countdown” later that it was his 15th visit to the site, and he told CBS during one stopover that he was “happy to pay more taxes” if it helped the cause. But it was the first trip to the teeming park for West, listed by Forbes as one of the world’s 100 richest celebrities with earnings estimated at $16 million. The rap star refused to answer questions.

“He’s here in support of the people,” Simmons said. “He wants to give power back to the people.”

Sharpton was more outgoing. He hugged demonstrators and shook hands. Later, he focused his MSNBC show on his visit, which he said was aimed at lending his voice to an anti-greed outcry that crossed political and racial lines.

Sharpton then went on to bash Republicans for bashing Occupy Wall Street.

Last week the Obama Administration told the WTO that 200 Chinese subsidy programs violated WTO rules, and today the U.S. Senate voted 63-35 to impose duties on imports from China if the President finds they are “manipulating” their currency. Both Obama’s policy and the Senate action contrast sharply with the policy posed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a major article in Foreign Policy magazine published Oct. 11:

“Some in our country see China’s progress as a threat to the United States; some in China worry that America seeks to constrain China’s growth. We reject both those views. The fact is that a thriving America is good for China and a thriving China is good for America.”

Sec. Clinton writes that one of the “most important tasks of American statecraft over the next decade” is to “lock in a substantially increased investment — diplomatic, economic, strategic, and otherwise — in the Asia-Pacific region. The Asia-Pacific has become a key driver of global politics.”

She contrasts this orientation to America’s traditional ties to the “transatlantic network of institutions,” writing that “The future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the center of the action.”

Also, Kurt M. Campbell, U.S. Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, speaking in Bangkok on Monday, made a similar argument. “The United States is in the process now of one of the most important transitions, that is, repositioning and rebalancing American foreign policy priorities in our history… [towards] Asia and East Asia as a whole.”

Video Shows that Obama directed Holder To Launch Fast and Furious in March 2009
October 13, 2011

President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, and Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano have all denied any knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious. In fact, Eric Holder has claimed that he never read reports addressed to him beginning in March 2009 which reported on the operation.

However, these denials are belied by two speeches, one given on March 24, 2009, by then-Deputy Attorney General David Ogden and one given by Eric Holder, himself, on April 2, 2009.

A partial transcript of Ogden’s speech, recorded by C-SPAN 2, follows: “The President has directed us to fight these cartels, and Attorney General Holder and I have taken several new and aggressive steps as part of the administration’s comprehensive plan. Those steps include the following: The DOJ’s ATF is placing 16 new DEA positions in Southwest field operations specifically to target Mexican trafficking and associated violence. The DOJ’s ATF is increasing its efforts by adding 47 new employees and 3 new offices using $10 million in Economic Recovery Act funds and redeploying 100 personnel to the South West Border in the next 45 days to fortify its Project Gunrunner, which is aimed at disrupting arms trafficking between the United States and Mexico. The ATF is doubling its presence in Mexico itself from 5 to 9 personnel working with Mexicans specifically to facilitate gun- tracing activity which targets illegal weapons and their sources in the United States.”

Holder, himself, who told Congress on May 3, 2011, that he had only heard about the program a few weeks earlier, gave a speech in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on April 2, 2009, in which he boasted about Operation Gunrunner and told Mexican authorities of everything he was doing to insure its success. Holder told the audience: “Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail.”

Keeping it all vague and anonymous does not benefit the protestors in achieving any goals

================

For the goal of getting voters on both sides focused on the abuses of unregulated Wall Street, and discussing possible measures to improve the situation — all this mystery seems to be working very well.

It’s got respectable people publishing graphs to show the inequality — and giving the protestors good advice about what some measures should be.

lil ole grapeYou paint areal picture of the conditions and the various remedies that were tried WPA ect.In our present picture we have loss of homes and belongings in foreclosures cars personal assets.Back then very few people owned their own homes.There were few mortgages but the landlords were more tolerant and felt that an empty home only diminished its value due to neglect.
Today our government tries to manage every problem by throwing money at investors inflation greed and downright fraud is a new form of business management.We have welfare food stamps and one needs not work to exist.I have never heard a sitting POTUS talk about a plan of redistribution
retribution restitution and revolution until BO came along with his race calling card.It is time to
draft Hillary and Start impeachment of this fraud.

Thanks for posting the Bill’s interview with Letterman. Letterman is a tough nut to crack. He’s all in for BO-
____________________

ABM90 and lil ole grape-

I read both of your posts and the one thing that stuck out in my mind is the difference- America was still in it’s infancy stage during the Great Depression. There was no such thing as the Middle Class or none to speak of as we would recognize it today… There was the Poor, the Working Class and the Wealthy Class- It was the Working Class who aspired to be something like the Wealthy but not quite- and it was they who set the foundation for the new Middle Class by virtue of their entrepreneurship. The movie Mildred Pierce is a good example of how self-employment and building your own business can develop into a comfortable life style. Even so, you would still remain in what is now classified as Upper Middle Class.

The difference between then and now is… the Middle Class have tasted the good life and they want to keep it that way- because there is enough money to go around for everyone. The Clinton presidency proved it could be done for eight short years. Peace and Prosperity for ALL.

At the beginnings… The wealthy came with a pedigree assigned over time to the European elite eventually migrating to the US. Most of that generation was called coming from “Old Money’.. they either squandered it or turned it into more money preserving their Trusts for future generations. Like the Vanderbilts, the Whitneys, Carnegie and Astors. Oil Barons and tycoons creating their own wealth within their own generation.

I have an old book by the title of “Their Turf” by Bernard Livingston, I read years ago.. about the horsey set and their lavish lifestyles. They reconciled their wealth as part of a working system. By employing the “Poor” as servants giving them room and board and a small stipend just as was done in England.. The poor with large families sent their kids to work for the rich as indentured servants..thats the way it was done until the Middle Class came along. Now the Rich have to pay a living wage for the services of the working class.

The important point I want to make is I think the elites and people like Soros want the US to return to that way of life as it was at the turn of the 19th through the early 20th Century. This is what they are after… rolling the clock back 200 yrs. to the Rich and the Poor.

BTW, for those like myself who are alarmed at the anti-semitic tone being taken by some at these protests, and the historic dangers of inchoate rage at The Nebulous Shadowy Bankers, I give you this:

Adbusters, the magazine credited with the idea of the protests, was “previously best known for the 2004 essay, ‘Why Won’t Anyone Say They Are Jewish?’–an investigative report that identified some of the most influential Jews in America and their nefarious grip on policy.” The demonization of “bankers,” “plutocrats” and “the 1%” echoes age-old anti-Semitic tropes.